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Pasadena Weekly: "...a crisp, energizing melange of hummable melody and sweetly layered harmonies."
Esoteric Echo: "Choose Your Fix is quite possibly the greatest album Wilco never recorded."
Neohippy.net: "...a unique sound fusing acoustic alternative rock with a slight touch of country... an undeniable hipness"
Santa Monica Mirror: "Whatever the hell you call it, you're going to like it and play it a lot."
All Music Guide: "This is the real thing and that's a real good thing."
Miles of Music: "[Jukebox Junkies] conjure the recent musical past while dodging the derivative tag."
&PRESS1=Hooked on Sonics Marc Dauer, the man behind Jukebox Junkies, is also a veteran of the "American Pie" soundtrack -- not to mention medical school and the band Five Easy Pieces. On Choose Your Fix, Dauer locates a melodic, comfortable spot between power pop and the roots- and radio-friendly work of your Counting Crows and Wallflowers of yore and your Train and Minibar of today. (Not coincidentally, among those sitting in with Dauer are a couple of guys with Wallflowers and Minibar on their resumes.) It's a sound that brings to mind the likes of circa-AM Wilco (the brilliant opener "Sentimental Tattoo" opener) and Matthew Sweet ("Undertow"), but the familiarity it breeds is welcome instead of distracting. Dauer is a talented songwriter and vocalist, and, man, does he have a way with a melody. But Choose Your Fix reveals his most impressive gifts to be his versatility as a band leader (he clearly knows his way around a glockenspiel and a pedal steel) and the ability to conjure the recent musical past while dodging the derivative tag. Source: milesofmusic.com &PRESS2=Rating: Timeless (96 out of 100) California rock band Jukebox Junkies have a leg up on the cutting edge of ACR with their new CD, "Choose Your Fix." The format has recently seen huge gains from artists like Ryan Adams, Minibar and Lucinda Williams, just to name a few. Taking up where these artists left off, Jukebox Junkies create a unique sound fusing acoustic alternative rock with a slight touch of country, and adding the newly popular UK garage band vibe and an undeniable hipness to the mix. The result is an album full of pop-rock gems ready for airplay in many formats, and another big step forward for modern acoustic rock. Source: neohippy.net &PRESS3=(excerpt) As it so happens, I'm also hooked on Choose Your Fix, the debut CD by Jukebox Junkies. Marc Dauer is the main force behind the band and was in the well-reviewed Five Easy Pieces whose first effort was produced a few years back by T Bone Burnett. Dauer's picture in the CD booklet in a kind of cowboy hat is misleading. He looks like a guy who's ready for a residency gig at an Austin club but this is roots rock, not alt-country. In fact, you could call it alternative pop or power pop. Whatever the hell you call it, you're going to like it and play it a lot. The songs chart a journey of wishing and wanting to believe in things but also knowing you can get caught in life's undertow or have a hell of a time dodging various wrecking balls. (In that one sentence, by the way, I've referenced four songs from the CD.) You know how you sometimes drive past somebody's car whose windows are down and a really cool song is playing loud enough for you to hear that just hits you where you live but the guy drives off before you can ask him what it is? That's how Dauer's album feels. Luckily for you, I'm not speeding away and leaving you in the dark. This lyrical album is by Jukebox Junkies and it's called Choose Your Fix. Source: smmirror.com &PRESS4=Jukebox Junkies Are Cookin'! by The SpinDoctor Rating: 10 Billed as an alt-country vibe, the music is hot! Feels a bit like Wilco, Jayhawks and some others but is definitely FRESH! Well-constructed songs, excellent talent and production values. Give it a spin and get this CD! Source: cdstreet.com &PRESS5= Well now. Damn good. Fuckin good. Good. Evidently this group is named after the great Ken Mellons song of the early nineties. Yo. What ever happened to the cool but horribly named Ken Mellons? But the playing and singing and songwriting is flat excellent here. They're a bit Beatley for my taste. Wait! This leads me into a profound meditation. We might think of "Act Naturally" as the fulcrum upon which the career of the Beatles turned. They faced an epochol choice at the moment they finished that song: whether to become a decent Bakersfield-style country band, or to blow themselves up like four balloons and float entirely free of the earth into the realm of the "psychedelic," complete with like symphony orchestras and pure European music-hall dreck for songs. Pretentious, yet deeply stupid, they chose the latter, and so rock music did not recover until 1976. But the Jukebox Junkies sound like the Beatles might have if they never started sucking joints, converting to Hinduism, and slowly lapsing into a coma. Really, this stuff is marvelously crafted and right on the cusp between rock and country without being like the Eagles or some shit. Source: crispinsartwell.com &PRESS6= Marc Dauer muove i fili del progetto Jukebox Junkies, formazione tenacemente messa in piedi dopo le solite, ormai inevitabili, traversie che questo giovane ed interessante rocker californiano (originario di Long Beach) ha dovuto attraversare nel corso degli ultimi tre anni. Il successo lo ha velatemente sfiorato con la precedente esperienza nei Five Easy Pieces, formazione da lui creata in quel di New York, che riusci ad emergere nel '98 con un disco prodotto da sua maesta T-Bone Burnett e che vantava la collaborazione di gente degli Heartbreakers di Tom Petty. Quasi scontato dire che quell'avventura e durata troppo poco, nonostante le buone critiche e le incoraggianti pacche sulle spalle. Nel frattempo Marc si e divertito a fare il produttore (per Pete Yorn e per una promettente band inglese, i Minibar), a collaborare per qualche colonna sonora, raccogliendo i cocci del passato ed approntando l'esordio a budget ridotto dei Jukebox Junkies. In sessione Dauer ritrova amici e compagni di vecchia data, tra cui Rami Jaffee dei Wallflowers, ma il merito della freschezza di questo disco e attribuibile tutta al suo paziente lavoro: Choose Your Fix conquistera i favori di chi cerca canzoni svelte e morbide melodie, in bilico tra inclinazioni roots e dichiarate debolezze pop, ricetta che a partire da Tom Petty per arrivare agli ultimi JayHawks e Wallflowers, ha sempre esercitato il suo fascino (anche se, nel caso di Marc, vale soprattutto un raffronto con Todd Thibaud). Digressioni beatlesiane (Over and over), chitarre limpide ed organi d'atmosfera (Reason to believe), dolci ballate folk-rock (Wrecking ball) e qualche impennata rock'n'roll (Undertow), in un disco che scorre senza particolari intoppi fino alla fine, parlando il linguaggio di un pop-rock dai grandi spazi e dai modi gentili. - Innocente Source: www.rootshighway.it &PRESS7= A strong debut album of jangly roots-rock reminiscent of early Wilco and the Jayhawks from this LA band led by former Five Easy Pieces frontman Marc Dauer. - Don Yates Source: kexp.org &PRESS8= Led by former Five Easy Pieces frontman Marc Dauer, the Jukebox Junkies' self-titled debut album takes off where his brilliant former pop/rock band left off, and also leads the listener into a different, slightly more rustic musical territory. In many ways, this album is not unlike a great, long-lost Wilco album, yet with a less eclectic approach and a more direct song/performance presentation. Dauer's songs are loaded with fabulous country/folk-rock hooks, which sound fresh and familiar at the same time. The horn-driven "Over and Over" may be the most undeviating and accessible cut on the album, and is filled with a brilliant pop buoyancy, yet it does this without compromising the earthy, streetwise appeal that marks almost all of the songs here. Lyrically, all of the tunes shoot straight from the hip, with a solid sense of virtue and strength of spirit that is extremely appealing. The heartbreakingly beautiful ballad "Reason to Believe" (not to be confused with the Tim Hardin song of the same name) is an exquisite example of this, reaching into the listener's guts and soul with a feather rather than a scalpel, pulling out new insights into the human condition. In the end, Jukebox Junkies is a diverse and powerful, yet intimate, record of songs, rather than a fashion statement, which is something that the record industry still feels the need to inflict on the general public. This is the real thing and that's a real good thing. - Matthew Greenwald Source: allmusic.com &PRESS9= "I like to call it Alt Country Pop Rock", says lead Jukebox Junkie Marc Dauer of his band's music. That's a pretty good assessment, indeed, and Choose Your Fix is quite possibly the greatest album Wilco never recorded. But even as Dauer cites those alt-country-pop darlings as a definite influence, the Jukebox Junkies seem to have a firm grasp in what makes joyous music truly joyous. Where Wilco and Jeff Tweedy are often wont to trip along the frayed lines of pop perfection and hazy late night bar room sobriety, Dauer leads his group through a set of eleven great songs on Choose Your Fix that are simply amazingly feel good. And not in any cheesy sort of way. If you find a smile not forming on your face within the time it takes to listen to "Sentimental Tattoo" and "Over and Over", the first two songs on the album, then perhaps the good groove here is not for you. Dauer formerly fronted the band Five Easy Pieces, whose MCA debut in 1998 found a lot of fans but little marketing push as the label was going through the bad times of corporate restructuring, and well, great music often gets pushed aside in favor of shit that will sell in those instances. But why the hell the labels don't believe in bands like Dauer's is still hard to comprehend at times. Do they think audiences are stupid and can't tell what is and isn't good? There is a larger contingency of music fans out there who don't need Carson Daly to hold them by their hands when they go to the music stores, believe it or not. So Marc split with MCA and took it upon himself to form the great Jukebox Junkies, featuring Dauer playing guitars and singing, Zak Schaefer on bass, Darren Tehrani on guitar, and Blair Sinta on drums. Doing it his way allowed Dauer to create an album he liked very much. "I got the opportunity to make the album I wanted, for less than the food budget on my last album", noted Marc dryly. But the results speak for themselves. In the wry "Wish", Dauer paints the portraits of various characters, culminating in a classic send-up: "I stepped in to the coffee shop, got myself a slice of apple pie / Waitress blinked me in the eye, ended up with her apron on / She took my place triumphantly, now she's top ten on MTV / Wonder if she wishes she were here with me". The Junkies manage to create dreamy pop out of more wistful tunes as well. The finest examples of this are in the pretty and yearning "Reason To Believe" and the slow, aching "Wrecking Ball" that finds Dauer pointedly singing "Misplaced aggression, misdirected in every direction you happen to be in / Path of least resistance, ain't what it's cut out to be / Keep your distance / Get out of the way". Then there's the glorious fever rock of "Undertow" and the charging rush of "Uptown Train" complete with bells, great vocal harmonies, and just the right touch of twang in the guitars. For all the people who are clamoring over Wilco's oft-bootlegged and soon to be finally set free Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, they might also care to bend an ear to Dauer on Choose Your Fix's "Seven On The Line" that finds the Junkies doing their best Tweedy-influenced boogie. How could you miss with lines like "Two dollars and a pack of smokes / Twenty bucks just to get you home / Double down, seven on the line / We've been waiting a long, long time"? Son of "Casino Queen"? How about better than "Casino Queen". From the pedal steel /accordion / banjo / brushed drum groove of "Nothing Gets Me Down" to the odd-as-hell Casiotone drum track-backed closing "Anything", Choose Your Fix covers all the bases and then some. Beatlesque harmonies, indelible melodies, excellent lyrics, drawling guitars, and a whole lot of genuine surprises are to be heard on this album. The Jukebox Junkies should indeed stick around a while. It's hard to imagine hearing any better version of Marc Dauer's brand of music coming out any time soon. And yes, that even includes the fabled Mr. Tweedy's larger than life efforts. - Jason Thompson Source: esotericecho.com &PRESS10= Pop with steel Miles of Music goes the extra mile in promoting local indie artists By Bliss With access to commercial radio controlled by a mere few conglomerates, public radio shows skewing ever more toward commercial-type playlists, giant chains like Tower battling financial woes and once-mighty independent distributor DNA slamming its doors (imperiling the survival of many indie labels nationwide and even giving the majors a headache), music retailers are facing Darwinian challenges, to say the least. An of which makes promoting artists increasingly difficult--and essential. With the vast majority of the musicians in its catalogue denied radio's high-wattage promotional advantages, Miles of Music--an independent mail-order and Internet retailer based in North Hollywood whose artists run the gamut from Americana to power pop--is taking proactive measures: In the fall it launched a showcase designed to promote primarily local artists in its roster. The second such showcase--featuring Phil Tagliere (ex of Gingersol), Tracy Spueler, and Jukebox Junkies--takes place Saturday at Taix in Echo Park, hosted by MoM rep Robinson, who got the idea for the free event after performing at Taix himself. One not-insignificant byproduct of such a boutique approach is that artists wind up feeling more appreciated than they would with a bigger outfit. "Absolutely" affirms Jukebox Junkies songwriter/frontman Mark Dauer. "They (Miles of Music) have this really attentive audience from all over the world that's into this kind of music, and I'm really getting the opportunity to get the music out to people that may have been much more difficult (to reach). Certainly with a major label, their kind of MO is just to throw it out there and see what happens, and they're not really good at finding niches. Miles of Music fills that void really well." Dauer knows whereof he speaks. A former songwriter with Five Easy Pieces, an L.A. rock band whose 1998 T-Bone Burnett-produced debut met with critical approval but limited publicity and sales, he endured that band's whirl across the major-label dance floor with MCA and subsequent breakup in the wake of "corporate restructuring," Happily, contacts made en route enabled him to record his new album with Jukebox Junkies, "Choose Your Fix," with maximum creativity at minimal expense. "I got to make the exact record I wanted to for very little money," he explains, "which was really cool. I've been actually producing songs for Minibar's new record, and some of the guys in Minibar played on my album as well." Like a growing number of local indie artists Jukebox Junkies , sound is difficult to categorize; despite pronounced roots and pop elements, "rootsy pop" is too lame an appellation to slap on such a crisp, energizing melange of hummable melody and sweetly layered harmonies. When prompted in meetings with potential managers and labels to describe the Junkies' sound, Dauer says he's referenced favorite bands like Wilco and Son Volt, but he ultimately settles on "pop with pedal steel." "I think there need to be more pop records out there with pedal steel on it," he says. "Just because it's pedal steel doesn't mean it's country." And just because it sports a few alt-country flourishes doesn't mean it twangs. Not unlike contemporaries such as Ryan Adams or alt-pop singer-songwriter Pete Yorn (on whose much-ballyhooed "Musicforthemorningafter" album Dauer played and with whom he shares an altcountry side project, Shobud, named after the pedal steel manufacturer), the Junkies' sound owes as much to the Beatles as it does to Gram Parsons. Which means they color outside the lines of radio formats. "Five Easy Pieces used to get a lot of play at KPCC before they switched (formats)," Dauer says, "and we actually did a KPCC show at the Alex Theatre (in Glendale), which was really cool. Unfortunately, since they're gone, it's a little harder (to get on the air). It's only about a month since it -was done, so I'm basically still talking to some indie labels right now before I go all out and try to get distribution. At the end of the day, in order to really get out on the road and support it and do a lot of the things that you need to do to sell records, you need somebody funding you. ... I'd love to go with a really cool indie that would really get behind it." In the meantime, like fellow MoM artist Phil Tagliere (www.philtagliere.com), whose quietly delightful lo-fi disc "Slow" is just out on Bong Load's Custom Records, the disciplined Dauer is selling his album through his band Web site (www.jukeboxjunkies.com), and hoping to see some fresh faces at Saturday's showcase with bandmates Zak Schaefer (bass), Darren Tehrani (guitar) and Blair Sinta (drums). Between meetings, studio sessions and occasional road gigs, the licensed M.D. also pays the bills (and finds song inspiration) by working a few days a month at area clinics. Music and medicine, Dauer says, aren't as "diametrically different" as one might think. "There is a whole part of medicine that you really have to be emotionally tuned into the patients," he muses. "There's a lot of creativity in medicine too, surprisingly enough. And the gratification that you get from music when someone says 'I really connected with your song' is very similar to the gratification you get from medicine when someone says 'Thanks for helping me out.' They're both great things, in different ways." Source: Pasadena Weekly &PRESS11=Jukebox Junkies: The doc prefers rock By Chuck Mindenhall While being classically trained on violin in his childhood, Marc Dauer dreamed of music. But, leaving the daydreamer to his passing youth, and probably heeding the call of his superiors, he thought it safer to become a doctor. Later, he took the proper measures to do just that, attending medical school in New York, donning the medic blues, and putting in the time necessary to make it a career. The long hours began to block out and engulf his one constant, and still pressing true love: that of making music. Heartfelt music, better than the stuff happening in the world of pop music at the time. It had to have seemed an injustice to do nothing, so he risked the deadbeat tag, trading ambition to the uncertain universe of instinct, and in turn dropping the weighty texts. Unknowing of other forces that were at work, he made up his mind one lonesome day to make the pledge, to drop the medical profession, and start writing songs. And on that decisive day, with violent thunder claps and harrowing winds a blowin', the Zeitgeist materialized into a man and came down from the mountaintops. He deemeth'd an urbanization of country music, lordly proclaiming "the point is to knock the chewing grass from the cowboys lips." Then He smiled, toked from his divine cigarette, exhaled bemusedly, and added, "Replace the chewing grass with weeeeed: move the artist to the skylines, let him roam with the rats!" Then thus the rats -- journalists/industry folk/fast-acting fans -- were led through the municipal streets as the clouds parted, asking questions like, "When did it all begin? Johnny Cougar? Bryan and Ryan Adams? The Boss? Earlier still, maybe, Grateful Dead, the Mamas and Papas, Kenny Loggins, Lefty Frizell -- for God's sake, surely not Dwight Yoakam?" The pop-world was flummoxed, but Thus Spake the Zeitgeist before he smartly re-ascended to his place in elevation, and so it must be. Alt-country was real. And Dauer's timing to at last join in the movement was flawless. The burgeoning genre known as alternative country is forking mainstream highways in 2002, leading the usually banished-to-middle-aged-people's tastes of country rock into the finicky hearts of lively youth. It was Wilco that made the most significant mark in recent years, with their urban-hick Americana and steel-guitar wielding tree-rock and musicianship, raising the bar to unexpected heights. Much the same way that Jeff Tweedy's first band Uncle Tupelo readied the world for Wilco, Five Easy Pieces rolled out a regal red carpet for singer/songwriter Marc Dauer's Jukebox Junkies. Dauer, a Long Beach native and ardent Wilco fan, began the former band (who was slightly more pop-oriented) and was enabled to reach out through a deal with MCA, gaining him a skeletal audience at best, but endearing him to big names in the industry. His new band, Jukebox Junkies, have fleshed out the sound Dauer has always wanted to achieve, and that bands like Wilco, Counting Crows, Whiskytown, The Jayhawks and Train have made reverentially popular -- that of cosmopolitan-Americana. To hell with being a doctor, things are shaking out well for Dauer, albeit after a sluggish start. His is a natural course, as is evident in the songs, one that he could not deny. Best not to confuse the bon ton Hollywood-types that cram into local shows with the aforementioned new youthful fans, however, because L.A.'s affiliation with Jukebox Junkies is conspicuously celebra-phile. (That is, until Dauer himself gains public fame, which seems a near certain destination given his talents). Instead, Angelenos attend to see who might be sitting in with Dauer, a deserving artist's fave who is all-too-often overlooked. Playing drums in place of mainstay Blair Sinta, himself no slouch, was none other than Pete Yorn, at the dank coffeehouse, Hotel Cafe. With each Yorn movement, a specific, unassuming crowd within the crowd shifted as by vibration, like a school of sardines (which is also testimony to how packed it was). Nevertheless, the audience, dunce or no, should have gleaned that even Yorn was captivated by the sincere songcraft of Dauer and his Junkies. He was not there to showboat, or to keep with public appearance, or to help a lesser friend. He was there to play in a great band, an equal, while the privilege was available to him. Jukebox Junkies performed quite a few numbers from their debut album, "Choose Your Fix," with a noticeable professionalism and naturalness. People were transfixed, a feat for Los Angeles alone. The disk itself includes eleven palpable songs that have something more than just lyrics and accompanying instruments. They contain little chapters of life, allegories, confessions. Generous applications of pedal steel and acoustic guitar infiltrate the album, and a familiar Tweedy-esque voice ("Sentimental Tattoo") that Dauer just as easily deepens into amorphous familiarity ("Uptown Train", "One More Song"), in general -- as if the songs had been there all along, and we always knew it. The overall effect of the album is of distinctiveness. All songs are individually separatist, each having its own life force and viability. A beautiful collection for a debut, and a hell of a follow-up to Five Easy Pieces. It could be a stretch to think it will have Being There impact, but given enough distribution and exposure...hmm. Source: sunsetstripradio.com &PRESS12=Marc Dauer - On the Trampoline with Apogee By Richard Elen Marc Dauer is probably best known to many in the industry as the leader of T-Bone Burnett-produced band, Five Easy Pieces. Since then he's been working with people like Pete Yorn and British quartet Minibar, as well as his own new project Jukebox Junkies, and has had songs in several movies including American Pie and Mystery Alaska. Dauer hails from Long Beach, California, and was classically trained on the violin as a child before moving over to guitar in high school. He went straight from college to medical school and may be one of the few professsional musicians who is also a fully qualified physician. Soon after he left the medical scene to pursue music full time, he formed the band Five Easy Pieces. After the band came to an end in the midst of MCA Records' restructuring, he put a new lineup together with friends and colleagues, including members of his old band; the Wallflowers; and others. Under the name Jukebox Junkies - the name came from a line in one of Dauer's songs - they've released an album, Choose Your Fix, on the new label, Trampoline Records, they've set up to release the records Dauer and his colleagues Pete Yorn and Rami Jafee (formerly of the Wallflowers) produce in a series of "revolving bands" where different members get together under different names to create different kinds of music. The label has released a compilation album featuring songs from their various incarnations, called Greatest Hits Vol. 1. Marc Dauer's home studio in Hollywood features a large multi-purpose room - formerly the garage - in which both playing and performing are carried out. Pro Tools is the DAW of choice, with an Apogee AD-8000 as the front end. When I spoke to Marc, he was in the middle of recording a new album with actor and talented singer/songwriter Minnie Driver. The basic tracks were recorded at Rami Jaffee's studio, which is equipped with Apogee converters and Pro Tools. "We had Mario [Calire] on drums, Rami Jaffee on keyboards, I was playing guitar and Zak Schaefer was on bass," says Marc. "Minnie was playing acoustic, and then we had different people come in and play on the tracks." He is also sending the tracks to other musicians so that they can make their own contributions in their own time. "This is Minnie's first foray into the music business," he says, "and we don't have a label lined up. We're in a position where we can do it all ourselves - we can make the record we want to make and then take it to anyone we want." Marc has had the studio set up in its present form for just a few months, although he's been using Pro Tools for two or three years, and the AD-8000 is virtually the latest addition. "I've only had the AD-8000 for a few weeks," Marc notes, "but I already love it - it sounds great," he says. "There's a clear, clear difference compared to going into the Pro Tools converters," he goes on. "Rami has an HD system, and he always runs that with the AD-8000s," says Dauer. "On the tracks we've recorded here, the AD-8000 has been especially good on vocals and guitar," he notes. In addition to the "Greatest Hits" album, the Trampoline Records family is putting on a series of performances at local venues, where the bands that appear on the label can showcase their work. Read more about Trampoline and their activities here, and find out about Jukebox Junkies here. Source: apogeedigital.com